Prashanth G N BANGALORE: You would think social work would not be a preferred career option in the digital and information technology world. But the rapid infusion of technology into our lives hasn’t changed the need for personal and social care one bit, if anything may have intensified it.One indicator of this trend is asteady rise in the number of people preferring Master of Social Work (MSW) at Bangalore University (BU) and at its affiliated colleges. The BU main campus has registered a gradual increase over four years in MSW intake - 53 in 2010, 58 in 2011, 59 in 2012, and 68 in 2013. The increase in the number of students opting for MSW in BU’s affiliated colleges has also gone up from about 200 in 2012 to 250 in 2013. In 2013, more than 600 applications were received by colleges, up from 445 the previous year.
Two major courses are responsible for good inflow of students into MSW, say the BU faculty. Medical and psychiatric social work attract plenty of students. “A number of students prefer joining NGOs working with patients, community organisations, counselling setups, hospitals and social care institutions. Psychiatric social work has very few people to take care of patients. So, the job option in that field is high. Nursing has opened up a viable job sector for students in both India and abroad. Nurses are sought after in the Middle East and the UK particularly. Nurses find the job respectable and they get the satisfaction of helping other people in their career. But they need higher remuneration, as caregivers in hi-tech hospitals are well paid. Job security will intensify quality of care,” says a BU faculty member.
The other course that has made MSW attractive is human resource development (HRD). MSW in the early days did not have a connect with industry, which was seen as undesirable.
But practitioners in the area felt that if MSW has to be made more employable, the course would have to offer skills other than care. Human resource development was the answer. A good number of BU students are employed by industrial firms and many are in IT companies as well.
Bound for UK
Many students from BU have been going to the UK for a career in healthcare. The National Health System (NHS) of the UK has hundreds of nurses from India as they are unable to get adequate people from within their country; or the cost of hiring local caregivers is very high. While this is a new job opportunity, there have been problems relating to salaries paid to outsourced employees.
Occasionally, we see protests by NHS local staff and other locals against outsourcing. Despite this, NHS has not stopped hiring nurses from the developing world.
Middle East, particularly Dubai and Abu Dhabi, have plenty of Indian nurses, including from Bangalore. Hospitals in the Gulf have traditionally faced shortage of caregiving personnel.
BU also has a third field that is attracting students - social development - though not as much as the two courses mentioned.
Students who have specialised in development studies typically join government departments like the women and child development department, labour commissioner’s office, health and family welfare department and social service-related departments.
Students from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, are also highly preferred and enjoy aprestigious status in India and abroad. Roshni Nilaya, a wellknown social work institution in Mangalore, too, offers bachelor’s and master’s courses in social work and an MSc in holistic psychological counselling.
DH News Service
BU sees rise in number of students opting for MSW course
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